T5 vs LED questions

[phish guy]

Yup I did it....yee ol famous T5 vs led debate. I currently have 3 reef breeder photons over my 150 gallon reef (72 inch by 18 inch wide by 29 inch high). Although I loved these light's at first, they seem to be losing power after a few years of use. I've already replaced one ballast in a fixture and now the one fixture seems more blue than the other two, even running at the same percentages. So I opened my mind up to possibly changing to t5. I have a nice mixed reef with sps in the upper two thirds while mostly chalices are on the Bottom. I feel that I am not getting the color that I desire and wonder if my lights are playing a role in that. I do have a very short canopy on my tank so if I were to go with t5 such as the ATI sun power, I would have to take off the lid and leave the rim of the canopy so I can hang the light from the ceiling. So all in all, do you think it would be a bad idea to go to t5 from LED and would a 6 bulb X 80 watt fixture be enough for my tank? Let me hear your opinions and let the led vs T5 battle begin!

 

[bif24701]

I am having the same debate. I'm either for the new Photon-v2 or the ATI sun power T5 x6 for my 75. I think I'm going with the Photon-V2. The Sunpower doesn't come with bulbs, they are ~$20 each plus shipping. Also, T5 last at BEST 10 months and many suggest changing every 6-8 months. So for me that cost of fixture plus ~$140 initially and every 8 months.

 

[clearaquariums]

i personally have stayed with the t5 for now on my stuff

 

[bif24701]

i personally have stayed with the t5 for now on my stuff

How often must you replace bulbs? What kind of fixture do you have?

 

[Lostinthedark]

I had the exact same issue with my Ocean Revive. They shifted spectrum and lost par very slowly over time. I was losing SPS and couldn't figure out why. OR replaced the lights and growth took off again. Unfortunately, the same scenario happened again just over a year later. I went with an ATI 8x80 over a 225. Coral that I thought were long dead are showing signs of life. Color and growth with the ne lights are outstanding. I'm sorry I just didn't do T5s all this time. Cost me a small fortune in SPS.

 

[oseymour]

I've never had issues with my LEDS shifting spectrum but I've never used the LEDS mentioned here. I've only used LEDS from AI and Kessil.

Because I'm a gear junking and I like to tweak, on my current tank I decided to test T5 by adding a 2 bulb fixture to my mixed reef. The tank is only a few months old so it's too early to tell if its working.

It's a coralife fixture but I'm using ATI bulbs. If it works well I might go with a giesemann t5/LED fixture.

 

[wildman926]

I did a test on my tank, again, and had the same results. I went straight led, using a combination of BML and 21LEDUSA strips (4), and I started having color loss on my lps. Mainly and most noticeable, reds started turning either pink or dark orange. I pulled a single BML 14k fixture, and added a dual strip T5 HO with ATI Aquablue Special and Blue Plus, and after a week, I can see the difference in color. No other changes. My sps still had growth but are still small frags, but color change difference was not as noticeable as on my LPS.

 

[Lostinthedark]

I've never had issues with my LEDS shifting spectrum but I've never used the LEDS mentioned here. I've only used LEDS from AI and Kessil.

It seems to happen with most of the Chinese black boxes. I've only seen a few threads about burnt out diodes on the "better" quality lights

 

[dkeller_nc]

If it helps any, I'm seriously consider going to an ATI 2' 6-bulb fixture over my 50g cube. I started this tank with 2 AI Vegas, and determined quite quickly that the lack of UV/Violet in those fixtures wasn't cutting it. So I replaced them with a Radion XR30w Pro about a year and a half ago. It certainly works better than the Vegas, and lower light turbinarias and pipe organs grow fine, as do montipora capricornis. But other montis, and many maricultured Acros simply don't do well, even though frags of the same colonies do very well under fluorescents in a different tank.

My suspicion is that there simply isn't enough UV/Violet in even high-end, name brand UV fixtures. So the XR30w Pro will get combined with 2 XR15w Pros and 4 T5HO bulbs in a custom fixture/canopy over a new tank, and the 50g will get T5HO.

Given the money spent on LED fixtures and coral losses, it'd have been a whole lot cheaper to have stuck with T5HO and/or MH from the get-go. While I do love the controllability and lower heat output of LED fixtures, for me this is ultimately about keeping the animals alive and healthy.

 

[Johnic]

Why don't you consider a Led/T5 hybrid.

 

[phish guy]

I would love to but the $2,000 price tag for a fixture is a little much for me to cough up. I do love the look it gives tho

 

[Zacktosterone]

I am having the same debate. I'm either for the new Photon-v2 or the ATI sun power T5 x6 for my 75. I think I'm going with the Photon-V2. The Sunpower doesn't come with bulbs, they are ~$20 each plus shipping. Also, T5 last at BEST 10 months and many suggest changing every 6-8 months. So for me that cost of fixture plus ~$140 initially and every 8 months.

Your bulb replacement will be at least 10 months to 12 months especially with a sunpower. Youll get better growth to the point you wont care how much it costs for bulbs

 

[oseymour]

My suspicion is that there simply isn't enough UV/Violet in even high-end, name brand UV fixtures. So the XR30w Pro will get combined with 2 XR15w Pros and 4 T5HO bulbs in a custom fixture/canopy over a new tank, and the 50g will get T5HO.

Instead of guessing, ever thought about a par meter?

I bit the bullet and purchased a PAR meter to stop guessing. I bought the Seneye Reef Monitor which gives not only PAR but shows you the spectrum of the lights.

It was over 200 bucks but I have more than 5k invested in just equipment in my current tank and a few extra hundreds to make sure my lights are tuned are worth it.

 

[dkeller_nc]

I have a PAR meter, and access to a spectroradiometer. The issue isn't measurement, I can do that all day. The issue is the coral's response, particularly acroporas, to spectrum/intensity. There's certainly well-established rough guidelines - most species won't do well at less than 150 umol/s, and anything over 400 umol/s is risking bleaching.

But coral health/growth is more subtle than that. Though PAR is defined as intensity between 400nm - 700nm, it's apparent to many that certain pigments are stimulated in many acropora under 400 nm, and that even though one could potentially light one's coral with monochromatic light at 600 nm which is well within the photosynthetic maxima (and well within the PAR range), that would have a very bad outcome indeed.

 

[canadianeh]

in term of cost, is T5 cost more to have and to acquire than LED?

 

[btb72]

For my 40b I went with a 24" ati 6x24. When I was planning to use leds I was going to have to use 2 ecotech radions. So the leds woulda have been way more expensive.

 

[NYCBOB]

How often must you replace bulbs? What kind of fixture do you have?

i replace my t5 bulbs every 10-12 months.

 

[Bronx19]

Ocean Revive used here, running 2 units over a 30" tank to get coverage, one year in. My SPS are looking good, but my softies are getting washed out. I wasn't sure which lighting technology to go with when I started so I bought cheap just to get me started. Well now it's time to get serious, and I hit the the bullet on an ATI 6x24 sunpower. I dont want or need the gimmicks, I don't need the power but I really want coverage, colour and growth. So it's all T5 in a few weeks time.

I weighed up the costs of LED and T5 and I don't see any savings if you have to buy two LED units to cover a tank. The Radions are going to cost me $1100 a piece here, the ATI is just $600. I can buy bulbs yearly for 10 years and break even.

 

[f3honda4me]

The problem is that too many people think PAR means anything when it comes to LED. Unlike t5, halides, etc, LED target the specific PUR numbers we want, which is only a subset of the overall PAR spectrum. So while a LED fixture may show only 75% of the desired PAR value in actuality may be producing 150% of the needed PUR values.

LED lights can grow corals just as good as anything else out there but aren't as user friendly as halides and T5s.

 

[Bpb]

Some good info on here. I think honestly the cost between quality LEDs and an ati sunpower over a 5 year period will be pretty close. Maybe slightly more expensive for the ati. If you went cheap LEDs then that would widen the gap. But honestly how important is the cost to you. I mean really, I don't expect everyone is made of money here but we're not exactly talking about buying a vehicle or home.

I think your proposed switch would be a positive one. Being a former MH user and Ocean Revive LED user, and current Ati Sunpower user... I can definitely say I'm just simply happiest with my ATI and see no reason to even think about lighting anymore beyond maybe switching bulb color occasionally to suit tastes. Simple as that. I'm happier with the ATI and that happiness vastly outweighs the annual bulb replacement cost.


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